Highly resistive thin films are used as heater elements for various applications. One key application is phase change memory, in which the different electrical resistivity values of the crystalline and amorphous states of chalcogenide glass are used to store data. The amorphous, high resistance state is typically used to represent a binary 0, with the crystalline, low resistance state representing a 1. A heater element is needed to switch a chalcogenide glass memory element from the crystalline phase to the amorphous phase. Thin film resistive heaters are also used in inkjet printers, micro-reactors and other devices.